Paytm sees 100% month-on-month growth in gold purchases

MUMBAI: Mobile wallet company Paytm, which had launched Digital Gold on April 27 this year, is seeing a 100% month-on-month growth in volume of its sales on its platform. The company, which tied up with government-promoted MMTCPAMP to sell 24 karat 999.9 gold through its wallet, is seeing a lot of interest for this among youths.

“A majority of Digital Gold customers are within 25-35 years.Young adults are attracted to it owing to the flexibility and low ticket price it offers,“ said Krishna Hegde, senior vice president, Paytm.

Consumers can buy gold even for as low as Rs 1 through the Paytm wallet, which will be held in fully insured and secured vaults of MMTCPAMP . The company also facilitates shipping of the physical gold weighing more than 1 gm to the consumer's address.

Paytm has sold around 100 kg of digital gold through its wallet application since its launch on Akshay Tritiya this year.

While smart phone-based wallet applications are mostly used by consumers for payment, Paytm, which is trying to position itself as a financial stopover for the Indian youth, hopes to expand its usability through such savings propositions.

The country's 400 million young population accounts for 61% of India's internet base, and they could be using digital gold as a savings option because of the convenience, security and the attractive pricing, said Hegde. Paytm has a user base of 225 million. Products like these allow consumers to park bigger amount of money in their wallets and increase customer stickiness, which is vital for their banking business.

“Products like digital gold enhance the stickiness quotient of a platform, which converts into higher repeat users. This is a result of the high consumer trust. Over time, we see this massive traffic also embrace other newly launched financial products and services,“ said Hedge.